Beautifully Awake

by Riley Mackenzie

  “Oh good. I know he was really worried.” I knew I was.

  “Yeah, he was relieved the whole thing’s over.”

  “They’re nice people. Kelly’s so sweet. She’s looking forward to getting home to her twins. They must miss her like crazy. She really seems like such a wonderful mama.”

  “Mama?”

  “Yeah, that’s what her twins call her. It’s cute, right?”

  He looked at me so strange, I guessed he didn’t find it cute. Okay...

  “By the way, the OR was awesome and such a rush. I can’t believe you get to do that every day. I was in awe when anesthesia woke her up, and you operated while I was talking to her…”

  “I know, I know-” He interrupted my rant. “You ready? I’m starving.” His gaze was unnerving. He motioned for the exit with one hand, while his fingertips from the other brushed my lower back. My temperature spiked. Fresh air was going to be good.

  “Hey doll, wait up.” Guy jetted toward us. Thank god for the pause. “Heard you rocked the OR ... bummed Jackson scrubbed, would’ve loved to have seen you in there. Anyway, just saw Kate, said Mrs. Peterson’s awake now and was so happy you were there with her.” He gave me a huge smile, flashing his adorable dimple. “I’m so proud of you.”

  “Thanks. I can see you had a lot of confidence in me,” I said, oozing sarcasm.

  He grinned and held up his hand to give me a high five. “Come on, let’s go celebrate.”

  “You’re so silly sometimes, really a high five—what are we ten?” I slapped his hand and he pulled me in for a quick kiss on the cheek.

  “Oh you love it!” he teased.

  “Hunter, you’re not done here.” Seems our sweet exchange was interrupted by a glaring Chase. One arm remained firmly crossed against his chest, while the other raked through his hair. He blew a sharp breath through his nose. “Sam needs help with the new admission. And are all my cases ready for tomorrow? I don’t want any hold ups ... at all.”

  Guy retracted and nodded his head submissively. I understood you never talked back to your attending or you could kiss your career goodbye, but what the hell was that?

  “Ms. Porter, you’re with me. Let’s go.”

  I acknowledged him with a shake of my head and turned to say goodbye to Guy.

  “See you in the morning, Dr. Hunter, have a good night.”

  “Bye, Lil, you owe me ... a rain check?”

  “Sounds good.” And it did.

  I followed Chase across the street, not sure where the hell we were going or why. The first five floors of Franklin Towers were the surgery clinic floors; the neurosurgery clinic was on the second. The remaining fifteen floors were hospital housing. I was jealous of the doctors who got to roll out of bed and literally cross the street. At that ungodly hour nothing was more convenient.

  “Are we headed to your office to look at tomorrow’s schedule? Wanna go over new admissions and discharges?” I rambled.

  “Yeah, yeah, we can do that later, but I said I was starving. Get on the elevator.”

  His face was expressionless, yet he stared right at me. Do that later? My mind spun with a thousand questions but couldn’t formulate a damn thought. I opened my dry mouth to speak, but I was floundering for a reason to not get on the damn elevator. His fingertips traced my lower back again, and I practically fell in. He put in his elevator key and pressed floor sixteen. Sixteen? His apartment? Confusion pummeled through my body, making my stomach flip-flop at the quick rise in the elevator.

  “Make yourself comfortable, I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Getting comfortable in my hot boss’s apartment—the boss I barely knew—there was nothing comfortable about this.

  “If the doorbell rings, have them set the food on the dining room table.”

  He turned and strolled down the hall and out of sight. The silence was interrupted with running water. A lot of running water. Was he taking a freaking shower?

  I hadn’t budged past his apartment door mat. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping for a pause, a skip, hell, maybe a rewind, but instead my vision was clouded with images of his entire body, dripping wet.

  I slowly peeled my eyes open, hoping for a distraction. The grey and black hues, the large inviting sectional, huge flat screen TV, and gorgeous mahogany dining set screamed bachelor pad, but so tastefully done. It was obviously nice to be a recruited attending invited to live in hospital housing. I placed my bag at the edge of the sofa and took a deep breath. Why was I here?

  The harsh sound of the doorbell startled me. I peeked through the keyhole. Takeout and I didn’t have a dollar to my name. Crap. I meant to hit the ATM tonight, but I was in a state of distraction to say the least.

  “Good evening, Miss, where would you like your dinner?”

  “Um … oh … on the table, please,” I mumbled. “Do you take credit card?”

  “Oh, Miss, no worries. Dr. Colton took care of it.” He arranged the dinner on the dining room table. “Have a pleasant evening, enjoy your dinner.” He turned and made a beeline for the door, quietly shutting it behind him.

  I cringed at my lack of city manners. Sierra NEVER went without tipping, she would have killed me. I let out a giant sigh and headed toward the table. Sushi.

  Wrangel didn’t do sushi. And I managed in the last three years to avoid it like the plague.

  “Dinner.” His voice was sexy as hell. “Sit. You must be starving.” He barked instructions like he was still in the OR.

  He made his way over to the table, while my eyes fixed on his unruly wet locks hanging down his forehead. I should have been formulating a coherent way of articulating how odd and borderline inappropriate it was for me to even be here, but instead I focused on how everything below tingled with the thought of running my fingers through that hair.

  “You know, I really should be getting home, I don’t want to impose. I agreed to come because I thought we’d go over patients for tomorrow. It has been a long day and I’m exhausted.” I reached for my bag.

  “Stay.” He didn’t even attempt to make it sound like a question. He pulled out a dining room chair and sat.

  “Excuse me?” My anxiety peaked. It was really time to politely excuse myself.

  “Stay, have dinner, I invited you.”

  “You did?”

  “I said I was starving and I know you must be and-” he paused, thinking. He bit his lower lip and ran his hands through his yummy dark chocolate brown hair.

  I inhaled deeply then bit my lower lip so hard I thought I tasted blood.

  “I thought you would join me. I told you I would feed you later. Sit?”

  This time, it sounded more like a question. Not that it mattered, my body was not going to let me leave, even though my mind was screaming to get the hell out of there.

  “Um, well okay, but I really can’t stay long.” I pulled out the chair across from him and sat, fidgeting with my nails. Why was I so nervous? I was acting totally ridiculous, but this felt oddly similar to a first date, even though I haven’t had one of those in, well ... years.

  “Fine. Beer or sake?” he asked.

  I looked at the table and inwardly cringed. The piece of art in front of me was unfortunately a table full of colorful sushi. Too bad we couldn’t sit and just admire it all night. My stomach did another flip-flop. A slow wave of nausea rolled through me. I should have bolted when I had the chance.

  “Sake?”

  “Yes, sake—Japanese rice wine, goes with sushi—you want some?”

  Couldn’t pass up wine, I needed something to diffuse this anxiety.

  “Um ... sure.”

  “I’m gonna grab a beer from the fridge and a shot glass.” He stood up and headed for the kitchen.

  I reached for a large wine glass from his mahogany credenza and proceeded to pour myself a very large glass of sake—I thought that’s what he called it. I lifted my glass to take my first sip when he returned with a beer in one hand, shot glass in the other.

  “Thirsty,
huh ... guess you don’t need the shot glass.” A small chuckle left those sexy lips.

  Shot glass? Why the hell did I need a shot glass? “Ahh ... no ... ahhh, sorry I helped myself. Just a very long day ... um, figured you didn’t need to wait on me.”

  “Relax, Blue.”

  I must have sounded like a bumbling idiot. I needed to get a freaking grip. I stared down at my cloudy wine. Why’s it cloudy? I had not a minute longer to analyze. I took a huge swig. The burn was exactly what I needed.

  “Blue.”

  I looked up. And squinted with I’m sure a very confused look on my face. Is he calling me blue?

  “Help yourself.”

  There was no way in hell that raw fish was coming anywhere near my mouth.

  “I’m really not that hungry ... I had a big lunch with Kate. I’ll just have some of that aa-aa-” The very green looking salad type dish caught my eye. “Some of that ... salad.” I pointed to the fluorescent lime green heap.

  He laughed. “You’re joking, you’re not just eating seaweed salad. For one, I’m not convinced you even had lunch, and two, if you did, that was like eight hours ago. Seven of those were in an OR with me.” He shook his head and frowned.

  I didn’t hear anything past seaweed. I was silently trying to control my gag reflex. I picked up my glass and took a giant swig, trying to tame the lump in my throat. What the hell have I gotten myself into? On so many levels…

  “You’ve never had sushi, have you?” He cockily turned up his lips.

  “Well, I … um, grew up in a really small town up north—when I say small I mean small, like population six hundred and fifty-two small—sushi was not an option.”

  He grinned, clearing enjoying the fact that I had never had sushi. “Well, you have to give it a chance ... here.” His chopsticks expertly picked up a beautifully wrapped little parcel and placed it on my plate.

  Was it possible to be turned on by watching someone flex their forearm? Those tingles continued.

  “This one isn’t raw, it’s a California roll. Try it.”

  I pulled my eyes from his chiseled arms to admire the pink and green hues. “It’s just too pretty to eat.” I giggled. Shit. I giggled. I was buzzed already, enough to giggle. Crap. Mental note. Baby nursery in pink and green. Damn, I needed to stop procrastinating. There was no damn way he was letting me leave without trying a piece. I took another rather large swig of sake; it was now or never. Only thing to lose was my stomach contents.

  I liked Chinese food, so I was pretty savvy with chopsticks. I picked up the roll and popped it in my mouth, chewed twice and swallowed. Chase sat, arms crossed, critiquing my every move. My eyes bounced back to his perfectly tanned arms and sculpted biceps tugging on his dark charcoal t-shirt. The distraction helped me get through the chewing and swallowing part.

  He smiled. “What’d ya think? Did you even taste it? I’m not sure you even chewed.”

  I chugged my remaining sake, washing it down. “It wasn’t so bad.” I smiled back. I managed to eat three more pieces while I watched Chase consume at least three or four entire rolls. He had some appetite. I wondered where he stored it; the man didn’t have an ounce of body fat anywhere.

  “You finished? Come.” He motioned for me to follow him over to the couch. I stood up and attempted to clean up our dinner dishes. I was tipsy. Seven hours in the OR must have dehydrated the hell out of me.

  “Leave it, I’ll deal with it later.” He grabbed another beer from the fridge and headed toward the couch.

  “You sure?”

  “Lili, come.” He walked from the kitchen to his large sectional in the living room. My eyes roamed from his fitted dark jeans hanging so delectably from his hips back to the dark charcoal t-shirt spreading across his muscular back. Flashbacks from the scrub sink saturated my brain. My attraction to this man boggled my mind.

  I was relieved he instructed to leave everything on the table. I needed a seat, definitely feeling light headed. My mind raced with some seriously dirty thoughts. Giving my glass a little refill, I headed toward the couch. The wine seemed to be working, even though it reminded me more of rubbing alcohol than wine. He obviously had a more refined palate than mine.

  I kicked off my shoes and curled my legs up under my bottom. He stared at me and smirked.

  “Comfortable?” He chose the cushion right next to mine and angled his body to face me, resting his arm along the back of the couch. My body tightened at his close proximity. I lifted my glass to my lips and sipped. A drunken hot mess was closely approaching.

  After reviewing a couple of our patients and discussing Kelly’s case, he dove directly into my personal life. A place I didn’t like to frequent.

  “So Blue, how’d you end up in Philly?”

  I sighed and took another sip. Was it too late to turn back?

  “To be honest, if it wasn’t for my best friend I wouldn’t be here. I grew up in one of those towns where everyone knew everyone’s business. My dad couldn’t afford to send me away for college, so in a way I was stuck. Born in Wrangel. Die in Wrangel. Crazy town motto.” I shrugged. “Unfortunately my father didn’t know any other way to raise me. I ended up putting myself through community college.”

  “Wow, that’s some feat,” he said, nodding in approval. “What’s your degree in?”

  “I got a certificate degree as a social worker-slash-case manager, an extra year tuition for a master’s degree just wasn’t in the budget. As it was, I worked two jobs through high school and continued with one through college. I struggled a bit, but I was pretty motivated.” I placed my glass on the coffee table and ran my hands through my hair. I decided on a quick ponytail. It was warm.

  “So what’d you do after college? You said you’ve only been in Philly for three years, right?”

  “That’s right.” I picked my glass back up and emptied it. Diarrhea of the mouth ... shit. “I actually loved my job. I worked with underprivileged and abused children at a crisis center. It was extremely heartening to see how simple it was to make a difference in someone else’s life. I know that might sound cliché, but seriously, these kids had nothing, no one to care for them, no food, barely a roof over their heads, and yet it was effortless to make them smile. I really miss them sometimes.” My voice cracked.

  Get. A. Grip.

  Chase’s gaze never faltered and completely hypnotized me. There was something different about his eyes. Something I couldn’t explain. It was like looking into a stormy rain cloud waiting for the sun to come out. They told his story. A story I may never know, but a story that had me completely intrigued. This guy had yet to touch me in a real way and yet his eyes alone had me coming apart at the seams.

  “So I heard you loved Pediatrics-” He interrupted my inner dialogue.

  “Mm-hmm.” I smiled and slowly nodded.

  “Dr. Hunter was mumbling something about why we couldn’t get ahold of you that first morning on rounds, your pager was broken by a kid...”

  Still bringing up the morning I missed rounds ... ugh! I scrunched my nose and gave a nervous giggle. This evening was so not going to end well. I never giggled.

  “So if you loved the kids so much … why’d you leave? Sounds like you loved it in Wrangel and had a great job doing something you really loved.” He reached up and ran his hands through his hair. His shirt lifted up and I snuck a peek of those abs and that happy trail that disappeared into darkness.

  I sighed and sank back into the couch. My nights spent tossing and turning were finally starting to come less frequently, and this man I barely knew had me completely undone.

  “Hey, seems I’ve put you in a trance, I’m boring you.” He lifted his beer and took a swig. His lips and a lot of other things were very distracting.

  “Oh no, no … just thinking, sorry, what were you saying?”

  “I was saying you never did answer my original question. How’d you pick Philly?”

  “Oh that’s right.” I smiled sheepishly. “Sierra basically begged me t
o come, she was established here. She told me I didn’t have to end up like everyone else in our town. Sierra can be a bit dramatic at times— she said and I quote, ‘You were drowning in our town misery.’ Well seems she was right, I desperately needed a change of scenery. And she had a knack for being very convincing. I couldn’t argue. So, Sierra’s boyfriend, now husband, Dodd Baldwin—you may know him, a Philadelphia attorney with plenty of hospital connections—set me up with an interview for a case manager position.”

  I decided at that moment I was officially drunk. “So here I am.” A glass and a half of wine? Something wasn’t right. Time to change the subject.

  “So enough about me, Dr. Colton...” I shifted on the couch and ran a hand down my ponytail.

  “It’s Chase.”

  “Um. Okay, Chase.” I was feeling very uninhibited and chatty. Not a good combination. So I continued with what was really on my mind. “Can I ask why you called me Blue before?”

  He chuckled and took a long pull on his beer this time.

  “You know, Ms. Porter, been a long day … you look tired and we have a long day ahead of us. Time to get you home.”

  Well, so much for our chat; he knew I was freaking drunk.

  “Hmm, okay, good idea. I’ll call a cab.” I reached for my bag at the side of the couch and dug inside looking for my cell. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

  “Hello, Pete, Chase here. Sorry for the short notice but I need the car ... great ... see you in ten.” He clicked his cell off. “Ready, Blue? I’ll get you home. I’d drive you myself, but I’ve had a couple of beers.”

  Pete, who? Blue, AGAIN? Focus.

  I needed to stand up, walk, and get into a car without making a total ass of myself. “I’m fine, really. I can take a cab. I’ll just see you in the morning,” I muttered, not making eye contact. I slipped my shoes on—thank god for ballet flats—and stood up from the couch. I took a few steps and lost my footing, transitioning from the carpet to the hardwood floor. Yep, definitely drunk. My oversized bag slipped from my shoulder and crashed down, spilling its entire contents. Damn bridesmaid gift. Did I really need the extra large Tory Burch shoulder bag that Sierra insisted on?